Guest Post: Startup Business Development 101.

Sevaspace
Sevaspace
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Holger Luedorf has been involved in business development for almost 15 years. He has contributed a guest post with a bunch of great advice for startups that are just getting around to BD and what they should do and what they should not do. His views and opinions are his own and not those of foursquare.

· Create clear BD targets.

Ideally, BD targets are a subset of the overall company goals (e.g. grow the user base, expand internationally, outsource a critical technology etc.) but they could also be outside the core company goals, like exploring alternative business opportunities, seeking M&A opportunities etc.

· Structure your approach.

Set priorities in terms of who your ideal partners are. If you are new to the industry you better start researching yesterday. Analyze market sizing, market and competitiveness, and a clear timeline.

· Solve problems, help partners reach their goals.

Remember that partnerships never work when the benefits are one-sided. Figure out how your proposal helps the potential partner reach their goals.

· Be prepared, research the companies you want to partner with.

Research your target partners. Try to figure out what is top of mind for your potential partner. It is the same when you are preparing for interview, nothing worse than realizing that the person you are interviewing knows nothing about your company.

· Understand the partner organization.

Make sure you have a complete understanding of the organizational structure of your partner with a big company. Because it will help you to address the right people in the partner organization and help you identify additional contacts you might want to connect or back-channel with.

· Always be responsive.

It is disrespectful not to respond to companies or people that are trying to reach you for various reasons. Even of people reaching you in order to ask you for jobs, with a partnership proposal, or some simple user feedback try to respond in a short but polite “No”. At least you acknowledge their message or request.

· Don’t rush, don’t annoy.

There might be legitimate deadlines that you want to be clear about but otherwise give your partners enough time to make their decision, at their own pace. Appearing over-eager never helps from my experience.

· Can’t close? Regroup, analyze, and adapt if possible.

If your deal with a partner did not work, try to understand why and come up with an alternative approach. Think whether you had right partnership concept and did the business model make sense for both parties

· Build strong relationships with key partners over time.

It is important for your company to have a good reputation and trust. Thus try to maintain strong working relationship with partners. Proactive interface and partner will help you when partners research you and your company.

· Be present as a company.

If you want to make your company to gain valuable market insight and network with other people and companies in the industry try to participate in conferences or other speaking engagements, hosting university student visits, or provide quotes and insights to journalists. If it can be done mainly locally and without much travel involved do not miss that opportunity.

· Relay partner feedback back into your own organization.

While you will have meetings with your partners always relay on their critiques and feedbacks. Thus you will know better about your competitors and realize your products weaknesses. Moreover, you will be able to find ways for your product innovation. Partners feedback will help educating the organization and making more informed decisions.

· Make sure you have solid legal support.

Make sure to hire dedicated and experienced lawyers. It is important to have legal support, because they will understand the big picture and will have a good balance of risk-averseness and business acumen that will help getting better and will make your deals to be accomplished faster.

Source: http://avc.com/2013/01/guest-post-startup-business-development-101/?utm_campaign=Submission&utm_medium=Community&utm_source=GrowthHackers.com

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